‘Bond 25’ Suspends Shooting After Daniel Craig Injury (Report)

Variety — Robert Mitchell

The difficult road to production on the latest James Bond film has hit another hurdle after shooting was reportedly suspended following an injury to star Daniel Craig. According to British newspaper The Sun, the actor fell while sprinting on the set in Jamaica last week and has been flown to the U.S. for X-rays, resulting in a suspension of the shoot.

The newspaper cited an unnamed source as saying that Craig was shooting one of his final scenes in Jamaica. “He was sprinting during filming when he slipped and fell quite awkwardly,” the source said. “He was in quite a lot of pain and was complaining about his ankle.”

While it is unknown how long the production might be delayed, The Sun reports that filming at London’s iconic Pinewood Studios, which had been scheduled to begin at the end of the week, has been canceled.

In August 2017 a stunt-related injury to star Tom Cruise resulted in the shutdown and near-two month delay to production of “Mission: Impossible – Fallout.” That film’s release date was unaffected despite the seriousness of Cruise’s injury, which resulted in a broken ankle.

It is not the first time that Craig, who performs many of his own stunts, has been injured on the set of a Bond film. He had two teeth knocked out during his first stunt scene for his Bond debut in “Casino Royale”; sustained a number of injuries, including slicing off the tip of a finger and tearing a shoulder muscle, on “Quantum of Solace”; and injured his knee during a fight scene for his most recent outing as the super spy in 2015’s “Spectre.”

A potential production delay would be the latest setback for “Bond 25” following a troubled script process that saw original director Danny Boyle leave the project over creative differences with producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, resulting in a delay to the start of production and a subsequent delay to the planned release, originally slated for October 2019. The release is currently scheduled for April 8, 2020.

The full cast for the new adventure was revealed in April as production officially began, with Oscar-winner Rami Malek confirmed to play the film’s villain. Other new additions include Ana De Armas, Lashana Lynch, David Dencik, Billy Magnussen, and Dali Benssalah; returning cast members include Lea Seydoux, Jeffrey Wright, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Naomi Harris, and Ralph Fiennes. Locations include London, Italy and Norway.

Cary Joji Fukunaga is directing from a script by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Scott Z. Burns and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The title is still to be revealed.

Broccoli revealed that the film would open with the spy “enjoying himself in Jamaica.” The official log-line states that Bond’s “peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter [Wright] from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.”